The US Department of Justice is delaying – but not abandoning – its intention to enforce its new view that the Wire Act applies to other forms of online gambling beyond sports betting.

On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen issued a memo instructing US Attorneys that the DOJ was extending the ‘grace period’ under which federal prosecutors “should not apply the Wire Act to non-sports-related betting or wagering.”

The grace period now extends to December 31, “or 60 days after entry of final judgment in the New Hampshire litigation, whichever is later.” The DOJ cautioned that this extension “is an internal exercise of prosecutorial discretion and does not create a safe harbor for violations of the Wire Act.”

Backing up for a second, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) publicly issued a new opinion in January stating that the 1961 Wire Act, which barred the transmission of wagering information across state lines, now applied to pretty much all online gambling except the online horse betting covered by the federal Interstate Horseracing Act.